Digital Mind: Arc of Sin
by Fiend-Sam
Summary: As the world is at the beginning of the rebirth, a war breaks out between the demons and the mortals. A war who will be deciding about the ruler of them all. And the children of the future, will be our biggest thread" --- The book of Megami
1. A dream like reality

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI ARC OF SIN

**1**

It was a dark and rainy night as Ryouta stepped out of his front door, seemingly scared by something. He slammed the door shut behind him and ran down the front lawn leading to the street, before he turned left and followed the road down into the direction of his school. Now and then, he turned his head, apparently fearing to be watched by someone or something. As he passed by the old buildings that were standing to the left and right of the street, he looked into the windows that gave him the opportunity to see what was going on inside. The air around him seemed to grow colder with each second he breathed and he moved his legs faster, hoping to reach his destination as soon as possible. He took yet another turned into a side alley which served him as a short cut towards the school building he was trying to reach so badly. He hopped over a fence that was in his way and sprinted over the street, as halfway on the other side, a car hit him and he flew into the air, spinning violently, before hitting the ground behind the car. As the impact hit him, his body started to shake on the inside and an unimaginable pain spread out in him. Blood started to flow out of his mouth and he blinked twice before he realized what had just happened.

As he heard that the car door was opened and a woman started to yell in panic, he pulled together his last strength and softly whispered: "Shin..."

As if that was a command, a bright yellow light struck through the clouds high above the heads off the people in Tokyo and surrounded Ryouta, who then got sucked in by it and disappeared.

After witnessing this spectacle, which lasted for about three seconds, the woman who hit Ryouta started to scream and got checked into a mental clinic on the next day.

"Have you heard of what happened yesterday?" was one of the first things Katsuo heard as he entered his classroom. The room was full of chattering from his classmates who seemed to discuss something new and interesting. He slowly walked up to one of the groups that had formed around Noriko's Table and silently listened to what they were talking about .

"Yeah, yesterday. Ryouta out of the parallel class died. Seemed like a car hit him." Noriko said.

Katsuo raised an eyebrow, not being sure if that was something to make such a fuss about.

Sure, it was sad, he even talked to Ryouta from time to time, but it wasn't anything the entire class should be so interested in.

"But what was strange…" she suddenly broke the silence. "Is that the police didn't find any body. The driver admitted that she hit the boy and then she said…"

All the students around Noriko were now leaning in closer, so they wouldn't miss a single thing she was about to say. Even Katsuo was interested in what might have happened to the body of the boy so he went a little bit closer, but still tried to stay away from the rest of the people.

"The woman said a strike of lighting had hit the boy and he vanished into thin air." she finished the last line.

The people around her looked at each other silently, not sure if they were supposed to laugh or be afraid of such a thing.

Katsuo on the other hand had already reached his desk and sat down on the chair behind it.

Lighting from the guy swallowing a person. Not really.

Sure, the possibilities of getting hit by lighting and cause of that maybe being dust are there, but it's pretty unlikely. He didn't feel like believing something like this, without a clear evidence. And since the body was missing, there was no chance to know what really happened.

The teacher entered the class a few minutes later and the rest of the people were fleeing to their desks so they wouldn't have to sit through detention. As the lesson began, Katsuo closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into his dreamland.

Purple mist was rising from the ground up to Katsuo's head as he slowly regained consciousness.

He was still sitting behind his desk, his head lying on top of his history book, but it seemed that something has happened to his classroom. It was empty and seemed to shimmer in a dark greenish color. He rubbed his eyes for a second before checking again, but the classroom stayed the same. He stood up and walked forward to the chalkboard where he realized that something was written onto it.

_THE ONE HAS AWAKENED _

He looked at it as if it was an absurd joke before turning around. As he was about to leave the room, he noticed a girl standing by the door. He stepped back for a second, being scared by her sudden appearance, wondering how long she might have been standing there already and if she had watched him all this time.

She was rather short and looked about the age of 11, with long black hair which were covering her eyes and most of her face. Katsuo smiled nervously.

"You know, the Kayako style is outdated." he said, trying to keep cool, but being obviously freaked out by the presence of the girl.

By talking to her, he seemed to have done the opposite of what he wanted: Awake her interest.

She slowly got away from the door and walked towards him.

"Hey.. Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." he tried to apologize. "I like your hair, really."

But she didn't stop and continued to step closer to him.

He backed off to the chalkboard again and searched for a way out, as his eyes landed on the large ruler that was hanging on the left side of the board. He grabbed it and got in an awkward looking fighting stance.

"Don't get any closer!" he yelled, his voice cracking cause of the fear in him.

It was just a little girl, but the atmosphere in the room and the way she looked made him nervous.

She also wasn't wearing more than a plain white dress which seemed to have been torn off at some parts.

As she came closer Katsuo started to shake, until she opened her arms, seemingly wanting to touch him, to which he responded by swinging at her with the ruler.

"Get away from me!" he screamed and hit her in the face.

As the wooden tool connected with her face, the girl was forcefully pushed against the wall next to her and she slowly slid down on it.

"Freak!" Katsuo screamed as he ran passed her, while tears began to form in her eyes and blood started to ooze out of her cheek, and out the door.

He didn't stop to look back once and ran towards the flight of stairs at the end of the hallway, which he jumped down off, so he could make the gap between him and the girl as wide as possible.

He just wanted to escape from this dream.

That's what it had to be: A bad dream.

As he reached the feet of the stairs, he looked back up, just to be shocked again.

The girl was now standing a floor above him, looking at him with teary eyes and huge scar on her left cheek. She seemed to hold something in her hand that looked a card, which she suddenly threw at Katsuo.

He tried to catch the card, but the girl, surprisingly threw it with such force, that it cut through his and got stuck in his palm. With a loud scream, he fell on his knees trying to rip the sharp card out of his hand, which only seemed to cut deeper and deeper into him.

"No!! Make it stop! Please!" he screamed, wriggling around on the floor.

As he had to time to look back up, the girl had vanished and he was on his own again.

With a last scream, he looked back at his hand, only to realize that the card was gone as well, and his hand was fully healed.

He threw his head in all possible directions trying to make out where the girl disappeared to, but he couldn't see her anyway, so that he got up as fast as he could and went into the entrance hall.

As he threw himself against the double doors that blocked his way to freedom, he heard something breaking and an unbearable pain in his arm. He fell on his knees and bit on his lower lips, trying to fight back the pain that was about to overcome his mind. He would pass out if he couldn't do anything against it. He tried to fight the commandos his mind was yelling at him and tried to get up, but all of a sudden, he felt something holding onto his waist. He whirled around and stared right into the eyes of a big, white furred dog like creature that had sharp fangs hanging out of its mouth, which had blood all over them. For the second time in not even twenty minutes such a fear was coming up inside of him, that he felt like screaming. But he knew that this would just give that thing a reason to attack. What was it? Where did it come from? Why didn't he see it before? Katsuo slowly walked backwards, trying to reach the door behind him and just open it somehow so he could escape. There had to be a way out of this.

"Mortal human."

Katsuo stopped dead. He slowly lifted his head, looking back into the eyes of that absurdly scary looking beast.

Did it just talk to me? Did that seriously just happen?

And really, as it opened its mouth once again, it started to form words in a language understandable to Katsuo.

"Human! You, who have been chosen to witness the spectacle, will now be tested by me." it spoke, leaving Katsuo in a shock like state. It didn't just seem like a normal nightmare anymore.

He could understand this thing. He could communicate with it. And he started to realize, why this creature scared him so much. Cause it was real.

"Do not fear mortal." the beast spoke again, this time in a softer voice.

At this point Katsuo was sure about the fact that nothing he would do would get him away from here, cause of which he just decided to get straight up and step in front of the Cerberus.

"The old legend of Zyou it is then?" Katsuo asked, looking at the demon in front of him, now fully aware of what this was going to be like.

"Yes Katsuo. You have been chosen. The world outside is waiting for its savior. And you are one of the humans with the power." the Cerberus explained. "Don't you feel the power inside?"

Katsuo looked down on himself. He seemed the same as always, but still totally different.

Inside, he knew that he changed. But how was the question he couldn't answer. Not yet.

"Am I a summoner?" he decided to ask after a while.

"Yes, you are indeed." the demon replied. "You are one of Gods fighters for the freedom of humanity."

Katsuo looked on the ground, before he started to laugh silently.

"Funny. I don't even believe in any god." he stated, not caring if the demon would attack him or not.

It was amusing to him, since he knew how all of this would play out now. He read it. The book of Megami.

"It doesn't matter if you believe in god or not. He believes in you." the Cerberus, seeming to be not surprised by Katsuo's statement at all.

Katsuo nodded and put his hand on the demons head.

"I command you." he said with a dirty grin on his face.

The Cerberus jerked back and looked at him furiously.

"How dare you human!" he yelled. "I am a messenger of the holy one! I am not going to be the tool of a human being!"

Katsuo laughed again, louder than before this time and looked back at the forehead of the Cerberus on which a red seal has now been manifested.

"Seems like you already belong to me. God doesn't need you anymore." he pointed out, mocking the demon whose eyes were now glowing red.

"Mortal!!"

After the short flash right in front of him, Katsuo opened his eyes again and looked down onto his arm, which now had some kind of clock like thing attached to it. It was shaped like one and had some numbers on it, but the most outstanding looking part were the different buttons on it. A blue one on the left side, a red one on the red and a big black one in the middle which had the word "Start" written on it. Satisfied Katsuo looked back to the stairs to see the girl standing there once more. But this time he was not afraid of her.

"Now, I have the power." he said, before turning his back to her and walking out the front door, into humanities nightmare.


	2. The children are our future

_And from the ashes rises the fallen one, as from now on, he is the one we must follow._

_So we will give him all our might and strength , because he shall reach his goal and lead _

_us to salvation._

_---- Book of Megami_

Sand was blowing into his eye, whirled up by the tornado that appeared next town, cause of which his team had to hide underground in and old Military Facility.

It was their 3th day on the way from Ikebukuro to Shibuya and it seemed like they hadn't made any progress at all. They were running out of supplies and the children couldn't take the sudden weather changes the land was going through.

Toshio took of his cap and whipped sweat of his forehead. He himself couldn't take the heat either. The air was so dry and water was rare around these parts. And most of the demons were running around freely on the surface. They were locked in this canyon. Their old leader led them here. He said it would be a great place to rest. He kept repeating that till the Oni's ripped him apart and started devouring him. Then he screamed and begged for mercy, stating it was a stupid idea to come here.

He probably just wanted to get rid of all of them, so he could keep the supplies to himself. Jack ass. Being eaten is what he deserved. Yet, he felt sorry for him. Sure he led them into this disaster and then had he balls to die as the first and leave the others to their horrible fates, but he still got them far and protected the children. Just the right way. Women and children first.

As his thoughts slowly drifted off more and more to the women, he was a man after all, he noticed one of the children looking at him.

It was a small boy, about the age of 7 and Toshio couldn't remember hearing him speak a single word since they picked him up near Kabukicho. Who knows what those bastards did to him there.

The sleepless town. My ass.

He had short, brown hair and light blue eyes which gave him a quite scary look.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked carefully, trying not to scare the boy or freak him out in any other way. He seemed very much unhinged by whatever he witnessed back there and he didn't want him to get the feeling he was angry.

The boy stared at him like he was one of those things out there, with a mixture of hate and fear, and Toshio didn't know what to do or say, cause of which he just decided to stare back for as long as the boy could keep up.

They were probably staring at each other like idiots for 10 minutes, as Shizuka came up to Toshio.

"Toshio! One of the scouts found a secret exit out of the complex! It seems to lead to the surface, we just don't know to where." she said, being obviously hyped up by the chance of escaping the fate of being a victim of one of them.

But Toshio shook his head.

"We can't just follow a path that might lead us to nowhere. We got to check to what the exit connects to first." he replied, looking at her from the side with the most serious glance he could pull off. Shizuka nodded silently and sat down on a box next to him.

"So what are you gonna do?" she asked, being curious as always.

"I will go check it out first." Toshio said, while taking the rifle that was lying to his right and jumping up. "I am not going to sent anyone out there, before I am not sure everything is clear."

He walked down the hall towards the scout patrol that just came through one of the electronic doors. As they saw him approach they saluted and one of them, Norio, stepped forward.

"Toshio, we found a hole in the last area of the bas that seems to lead to the surface. We were able to feels a clear and fresh wind, followed by fresh air. It seems whatever is out there, was not touched by the demon yet." he reported.

Toshio nodded.

"Alright, good job guys." he replied before pointing at two in the back. "You two come with me and show me the hole. I will plan an escape route from there."

"Yes Sir!" was their answer and the turned around on their heels, leading him back to from where they just came from.

That must suck, Toshio thought.

Right after the door closed behind them, the darkness around them swallowed all the light and Toshio couldn't even make out his own hand, let alone the other two guys.

"The light is not working in this area Sir." one of them said.

"Oh seriously? What would make you say that?" he replied sarcastically before he turned on his flashlight. What he saw forced him to keep himself from puking his guts out.

There were parts of human flesh all over the floor and some were even glued to the wall with the dried blood of the same people the skin was torn from. He wavered back a bit before he could keep himself straight up.

"This is sick.." he said, his hand still covering his mouth because he feared he might still have to vomit. The other too didn't reply and just silently turned on their flashlights as well, before going ahead to lead the way.

They walked through a few rooms that looked too clean to be true, some even almost sterile, but then there were those who looked like the first one they entered, some even worse. As they entered one that was probably located around the west wing of the facility, Toshio's eyes immediately landed on a skull that was halfway stolen all of his skin with teeth missing and a crack in the middle. Right above that was something hanging, but Toshio couldn't really make out what it was. Against his own will he stepped closer to get a look. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what he was looking at. Hanging from the ceiling was the lifeless body of a 8 year old boy, his stomach being forced open with something more painful than a sharp knife and missing many of his bones and even his heart was ripped out.

He was about to scream, yes even go insane from what those monsters were doing, but one of the scouts was putting a hand on his shoulder and looked up at the body.

"It is horrible. All those innocent people, killed. I can't believe it, but it's the ugly truth. We need to save our people and keep them from having to face such fates, right?"

Toshio nodded again. He didn't know what to say, he just knew that it was right. He wasn't going to let anything happen to anyone of his team.

They moved forward through more bloody rooms, now getting messier with each door they opened, before they finally reached a small bridge that was leading over what seemed to be a bottomless pit, but Toshio was certain he could hear water flowing below them.

"Seems to be the cleaning area of this base." he pointed out.

The other two scouts were just walking slowly over the bridge, hoping nothing bad would happen to them. They could really need a day without an attack or any kind of falls. They made it over to the other side, where they took a little rest to keep track of where they went so they could find back later on. After the short break the followed the long and dark tunnels in front of them deeper into the complex, till they got smaller and smaller and it was almost impossible to get any farther.

Toshio was about to say they lost their way, when one of the scouts suddenly stopped.

"We are here Sir." one of them said and pointed at the wall behind him.

Toshio got closer and look at it carefully. It looked like there was some kind of hole in the wall revealing a single ray of light that hopefully came from the sun and also the feeling of cold air that was blowing against his skin. He closed his eyes for a second to fully enjoy the feeling and the scent of the air, before he turned to his men and looked at them proudly.

"Alright, let's check out what is going on out there and get the others to join us." he said and full of new hope, the troop started to look for a mechanism to open the passage.

"There must be something here." Toshio started to repeat, not even letting the thought of giving up come up. He banged against the wall and felt that it seemed cheap and light.

"Maybe we can kick it in?" he said and started kicking it with full force.

The other two joined in and soon enough their feet were ramming against the wall that was slowly seeming to crumble under the pressure. It was an unfair battle between boots and fake stone, or whatever it was made out, but the boots won and the wall finally collapsed and whirled some dust up.

As the sight was clear again, Toshio walked into the room, looking carefully to the left and right, before signaling the others to storm in and take out everything that moves. They did as he said and rushed pass him, their weapons ready to open fire. But there was no need to do so. Nothing jumped at them or tried to tear them apart and that felt relieving to Toshio who, just for a second there, thought it was too good to be true. Well he was right. There was no exit. The ray of light came from a reflection of a still turned on flashlight which seemed to run low and with that was useless, since they didn't even batteries to keep their own ones running. And the so called exit that actually existed once, was blockaded by rocks and metal that seemed to have fallen from the ceiling. Toshio kneeled down for a second and just let all his thoughts go for a second. There was no second exit. They wasted their energy and time waiting down here, coming here and now they had to waste their and the time of the people in the camp by having to walk all the way back and tell them that there is no escape. He got up again and looked into the eyes of his comrades who were probably thinking the exact same thing as him, before turning around to leave again. It was hopeless and he wouldn't lie to them. There end was coming. But they wouldn't go down quietly.

"What is your plan Sir?" the one scouts asked.

Toshio looked at him with a confused expression.

"We will tell them to leave of course." he replied. "That there is nothing her and we should go."

"You think that is an option Sir?" the second one yelled, seemingly losing control over himself. "There is a war going on outside. Demons versus fucking demons! I don't know about you two, but I for once did not plan this into my calendar. The god damn world is going down! We can't go back up! We will be killed!"

Toshio stepped in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder, just as he did it with him before.

"You are right. There is no way we few will survive the war out there. But I will tell you what: I would rather die out there, being eaten by one of those monster while fighting it, instead of sitting down here like a coward and wait for my end. We have to fight for the children of the future."

After he stopped speaking, silence filled the room and it kind of seemed scary, as if all three of them had just died, standing still next to each other. Then the silence was broken by the laughter of the first Scout. Toshio and the second one turned to him.

"What is so funny?" Toshio wanted to know.

"The children of the future." he answered, shaking cause of laughter. "I just remembered something! The—the book of Megami, it said something like this."

"The what?"

The second scout came closer to him and grabbed him by his arms.

"Where did you hear of that?"

"My father, he told me. The world is going to end. And out of the ashes of the dead, the world will be reborn and the signs of the strong ones will be seen everywhere! That was the last line of the book, wasn't it?"

After he stopped laughing, silence came back for a minute until he started speaking again.

"The children of the future is a chapter in the book. It says something about Children with the power to disobey the will of god, so they can be able to create their own world. The children shall fight each other for the power of the fallen one."

He took two steps towards Toshio and was now standing right next to the second scout.

"I can tell you, when Shin comes into the war, humanity is over."

Toshio raised an eyebrow.

"Shin?"

As soon as he said the name, the scout started to scream and a red light, glowing out of his eyes and mouth illuminated the entire room and revealing it to be a weapon chamber.

"What the hell is going on!" Toshio screamed and kicked the scout back into a wall.

There he was just standing, as if he was pinned to the wall by something and his scream turned into in an ear killing voice.

Toshio pressed his hands against his ears and bit his teeth together. It hurt his head so bad that he was about to pass out. He had to stop him somehow, but if he would remove his hands, he was pretty sure he would start to bleed.

He let his eyes fly around the room searching for something to help him out of the situation as he noticed an old globe, probably used to describe strategic operation in war situations and saw his chance. He saw this in an anime once when he was a kid. He ran towards it, pulled his leg back and kicked the globe as hard as possible and hit the screaming man right in the face. As the globe hit him he fell over and landed right on his ass, so that Toshio was able to point his rifle at the scout before he could even react.

"What, you want to shoot me Sir?" the man asked, laughing maniacally before he tried to get up.

"Stay down!" Toshio yelled and fired a warn shot right into the wall next to him. "What the hell is going on!?"

The scout didn't seem to be impressed; he seemed to be more amused by the confusion of his opposite.

He also wasn't scared at all by the fact that the guy in front of him was pointing a gun right at him, which he proved by getting up quickly and running towards him.

Toshio reacted fast enough and pulled the trigger, causing a bullet to drill itself into the man's left side. With a grunt of pain he fell to the floor and now, the other scout lifted his gun as well.

"I am sorry Kei…" he said with a shaking voice, before pointing the barrel at the other scouts head. As he pressed the trigger, an earpiercing bang made Toshio become deaf for a second.

After he could hear again he opened his eyes to see that the man, Kei, was now dead, one bullet in his torso and the other one in his head. Blood was flowing out of the two wounds as the second man was kneeling down to close his eyes. Toshio felt his breath stopping for a second, as he slowly realized what had just happened. They had to kill one of their comrades. They had no idea why, they just knew he became dangerous and they couldn't risk anything. It was war. In it now had reached their save haven.

"We gotta get back."

As Toshio walked through the frame of the automatic door, leading back to the main room, a biting scent went into his nose and tears filled his eyes. He shook his head trying to get the painful smell out of his head, but that didn't really work. Of course not. He took a look around, wondering where the smell could be coming from. Then he noticed something odd: No one was here. He took two more steps into the room, waiting for someone to be coming running towards him, but no one came.

He walked back to the sport where, about 4 hours ago, he was talking to Shizuka and looked at the spot where the young boy was sitting. Where did they disappear to? And that smell… It couldn't be.

The scout came up to him, seemingly worried about the situation.

"Sir, where is everyone? What happened here?" he asked, his voice full of false hope that Toshio might have been able to tell him. But he couldn't. He turned around and looked into his eyes, trying to tell him with his look that he had no idea himself. The scout seemed to understand and stared at the floor.

"Did we fail? Did we let them all die?" he said, this time more to himself, but Toshio knew that he wanted to hear an obvious answer from him. But he wasn't going to give him that.

He turned around and searched through the area, trying to find clues about what might have happened. He founds some empty cans from their supplies lying around, probably abandoned by those who had to run away from something. He nodded silently before he went back to their weapons and took a machinegun, as well as a handgun and stored it in one of the backpacks they apparently had left behind as well.

"I don't know what happened. I just know I won't give up. They might still be out there, alive. You're coming with me or not?" he asked, handing the scout another gun from the pile of weapons in front of them. The scout lifted his head, revealing the tears in his eyes that were rolling down his face.

"What they did to those poor children. We left our team alone and they might have killed them already. We left them alone and they attacked. It's all our fault!" he yelled, while sobbing and shaking heavily.

"So?"

The scout looked at Toshio, with an expression of shock and disbelieve.

"It is our fault. So what now? You want to sit here and wait for them to come back for us too? Or do you want to go out there and kick them in the ass?"

Toshio turned away from him and walked a few steps, before looking back at him.

"I don't even know your name kid." he noticed while smiling at him.

The scout seemed confused by the sudden change of mood, but still tried to keep up with it.

"My name is Daisuke." he said, still shaking a little bit, but overall, Toshio's casual way made him calm down a bit.

Toshio laughed a little before moving on again. It was time to face the reality of war. Cause no matter how long they were going to wait down here, they would come back to get them too. Now was not the time to hide. It was the time to show those bastards who is the boss.

"For the children, who are our future."


End file.
